WIRM

We all think "Spanish Moss" is romantic.

WIRM: Your tree is being weakened and made more likely to blow down in a storm. It is not a parasite, but it does block the sun and increases wind's potential to damage your tree. 

Another favorite is Mistletoe, and it is a true parasite! If you see big clumps in it your trees after the leaves fall off, birds may rejoice for the food source, but it is draining nutrients from the host tree.

[What It Really Means is a new feature on this website. Submissions welcome!]

Such NICE people

     Lessons I learned during a rather cold two hours outside the Winn-Dixie on Carter Hill Rd. this afternoon:

• People are TRULY nice. (OK, not fair. I knew that already. But it is nice to have it confirmed.) Website editor Jay came by and we were able to visit for a while, Always nice, even when he corrects my speling spelling.

• Sometimes the people who look the least able to contribute to a good cause, do. One lady told me about being given a place to stay by the Salvation Army one year. She's now in the process of buying her own home. Sweet.
• One of those knitted "beanie" hats would be a good investment for the season.
• People are truly, truly nice.

     Thanks to everyone who came by and gave change, dollars and checks. I have no idea what the total was, but at the end of the two hours it was getting difficult to push the cash into the kettle. And that's a good thing!

Bless you.

You Have Been Warned

This email is the kinda junk people use trying to get folks to give up personal information! I mean, I know some of us are slow, but we're not STUPID!!


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Dear XXXXX Internet Subscriber,


Due to the incessant rate of Spam we are currently upgrading XXXXXXXwith a hard spam protector, as such all XXXXX Account users must respond to this e-Mail immediately. Failure to comply with the above instruction will immediately render your e-Mail ACCOUNT deactivated from our database.

Enter your email here:

XXXXXXX.net  e-Mail Address:

XXXXXXX.net Password:



THE SUPPORT TEAM

XXXXXXXX SUPPORT



=========================================================================================

To decide the above email is authentic, you would have to believe XXXXXX knows the word "incessant"...and that they really CARE about how much span I get through their crappy service.
Both of which are obviously false!

The Red Kettle

     CBS 8 is working with the Salvation Army the year, with on-air and off employees volunteering to ring the bell and collect funds for the organization.
     Tuesday---tomorrow---, I'll be at the Winn-Dixie on Carter Hill and Country Club in Montgomery from Noon - 2:00pm taking part.
     Won't ya come by and say hi, and drop a coin or two in the kettle?
     Then I'll be over at the Wall-mart on Ann Street on Tuesday, December 6th, same time.
     I'm also going to set up an online kettle here...once I can work my way though the rocket-science computer work necessary to make that happen. (-:

BBC Nature: 'Brinicle' ice finger of death filmed in Antarctic

Slow-motion photography shows a "Brinicle" forming underwater....and killing everything in its path. The Huffington Post has the background to the BBC video.

MMMM # 176 --- T-M-I.

    I read---or at least quickly scan---hundreds of news stories some days. I watch dozens of hours of TV news each week. I hear lots of radio news too.
    Yet apparently it is not enough.
    I keep coming across stories that I feel I should know about, but don't.

• The major mortgage foreclosure firm that held a Halloween party mocking the homeless! (it has now shut down due to all of the business it lost after the publicity)
• A man in his 70's who was looking at stuff in the sporting goods department of a Wall-mart in L.A. about 5:00pm, when a homeless man grabbed an aluminum bat and proceeded to beat him to death.

     Even the relatively casual consumer of news has a flood of information arriving every day. Is it too much? Every now and then I go and cancel some of the email subscriptions I've signed up for. There may be good information in them, but T.M.I. And something has to go.
     Stuff that would never make it into the papers years ago now swirls around the net for half a day, and then is picked up by the papers and TV who can't ignore the noise the stories have generated online.
     Everybody is a publisher, even Tim Lennox! Most of the items I include on this site are much shorter than they used to be. If visitors are going to be here for two minutes or so, I want them to be able to take away as much as possible without having to wade through T.M.I.

The End

[Suggested Reading: a column about media pro-police bias over at The Huffington Post. Instead of being the cynical doubters we should be, too many journalists are siding with The Government, including cops.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a SHORT regular feature of this website.]  

The other shoe

 The AP voters put the Tide in 2nd place behind LSU after their victory over Auburn,so now the wait begins for next weekend's action to see what happens with the team's National Championship hopes.

     Will there be a repeat with LSU, and will it include a more successful outcome than the first?

     There were crowds buying Alabama victory shirts on Sunday at a Eastdale Mall store in Montgomery, with lines waiting to get in at one point.

Mr. Know It All

     There are times when I can sound like a know-it-all. Truth is, I do know a little about almost everything, but not a lot about anything. It's those years to talk-radio and hunting for stories. There aren't too many topics someone can bring up that I haven't a) done an interview about, or b) read something about.
      I've done enough medical interviews on diseases of the world that I should hold a medical degree.  
     Political issues? Paint me Lennox, Ph.D.
     Just don't go deeper than the first few questions.
     I mention it because of an interview I caught this morning on NPR's Weekend Edition.
     It was about a band, but I kept missing the name. Hotel? Nuro? WTF?
    Google to the rescue. The band was Neutral Milk Hotel.

     Who?
     Never heard of 'em.
     Yet the multi-trionaire author of the Harry Potter series described them as her favorite band! I found they even played a few block away from my Birmingham home in February of 1998.
     After reading some online material, I think I've figured out how I missed their ten-year career. It was like 1990 - 1999..the last years of my own radio career and my first in TV. It was a period in which I moved from Birmingham to Montgomery..blah blah blah.
      In other words, I was too busy rediscovering myself to pay much attention to an Indie band with a weird name.
     This rainy Sunday morning though, I spent time listening to samples of their work, and though I loved some of the lyrics, they probably wouldn't have been one of my favorites, even if I had been paying attention that decade.
     Neural Milk Hotel. At least I now know enough about 'em for that three-question-deep party conversation.

Saturday's critical times: 9:02 AM and 2:30 PM Central

     At 9:02, NASA will launch Curiosity, the most advanced machine yet to be landed on the surface of Mars.
     Somehow I can't find much excitement about the mission from the people I've mentioned it to in recent days. Maybe it's a generational thing. They grew up with space as a ho hum kinda average thing, while I date to, well, the start of it all. Anyway I'll be watching the launch in the morning. And I'll be watching eight and a half months from now when she lands.

     As for 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, that's kickoff for the Iron Bowl, a game I always watch.
     This year Alabama's hopes for a National Title are on the line. Auburn would love to get in the way, although they are like a 21 point underdog.
     Oh, and those people who don't care about Curiosity, they'll be all over the game.
     Maybe if we could get NASA to land something on the 40 yard line...
     Different strokes, I guess.

[P.S. When the rocket carrying Curiosity blasts past earth orbit, it may come within shouting distance of the failed Russian Mars probe that is stuck in earth orbit instead of heading towards the Red Planet. It will likely fall back to earth in January.]

Second Verse...

     I wondered what RT Today was when I read a story on the site about Alabama's Immigration Law. It was even more critical than other stories I have read (some of which I posted on this site). The story disclosed a "mass exodus" from Alabama!
     That sounded a touch harsh, so I started searching for a source and discovered I had landed on none other than...

RUSSIA TODAY! 

      There are a lot of reasons to criticize the Immigration law, which even initial supporters are pledging to rewrite (though many folks say toss it entirely!). But Russia is still a propaganda machine, anxious to find anything that will hurt the U.S. reputation.

     I'm just sorry that Alabama is providing them with the material du jour.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And here's a guide from CBS for Thanksgiving political "Conversation".

What It Really Means #1

WIRM: We hire potential thieves.

[What It Really Means is a new weekly photo commentary, posted on this website each Wednesday, about everyday stuff that's up for misinterpretation.]

Happy 4th Anniversary to Me

    It was four years ago today that I wrote the first post on this site, not quite knowing what it was for, or where it would lead.
    I don't call this a "blog" anymore...just a site, or website, since the blog aspect of it has faded.
   That first post on November 23, 2007 was about some photos I shot in Downtown Birmingham. I had lucked into a good early Sunday morning shoot, though it was frigid! I still use the results now and then to illustrate items...like this one.

    
    Visitors during those four years have come from hundreds of countries and tens of thousands of cities and towns. Some stayed just a second or two, other much longer. Few visitors leave comments, as is the nature of the vast Internet. One of those who does, Jay here in Montgomery, has become defacto editor, pointing out my errors in spelling and, less frequently I hope, in fact. And on this anniversary I'm pleased to announce I am doubling his salary. Great work Jay!
    I've made 2, 237 posts in those four years...some of them merit a second visit. Others, not so much.
     The Monday Morning Media Memo is still going strong after 175 entries, and today, in honor of the anniversary, I'm launching another weekly series. It's called What It Really Means. It's a commentary on stuff we see all the time...with a caption to explain what's really going on.
     I'll post the first one later this afternoon and keep it up each Wednesday as long as I find material. I welcome suggestions or comments.
     Thanks to all who come by here regularly, and the once in a lifetime visitors too!

Officer's Name Added to Memorial in Montgomery

The Montgomery Police Department will add Officer Manford E. Furr's name to the police memorial downtown today. He was killed during this 1974 incident at a WAXP Radio on Dexter Avenue in downtown Montgomery. Not sure why it took so long to put him name there, though he was retired from the force, working a private security job but was in a police uniform at the time. We'll have a report later today on WAKA CBS-8 in Montgomery.

Coal for Christmas, for sure!

Perhaps the most patient Mother in America!

Security!

     Having your home burglarized is scary. It happened to me in Birmingham years ago, and it took a long time for me to get over the creepy feeling of strangers pawing through my stuff.
     Here in Montgomery, the police are offering to keep a special eye on your home if you are going to be away for an extended period over the holidays. All you have to do is call 311,
     I'm really not the paranoid type, but when I read that story my first thought was how valuable that list of homes to check would be in the wrong hands!
   

"Great, let's head on over the the Smith's place...I see they're asking for extra security...they must have something valuable in there!"

     No matter how cautious the police are, if hackers can get into a water utility's computer system and destroy pumps, as they did recently*, and get into Pentagon databases, how hard would it be for them to hack the MPD list?
     I say get yourself a nice NRA membership decal and place one on each door. Then a motion sensor light system and either a live dog, or one of the motion sensor machines that sound like one.
     The key, after all, is to convince the thieves to visit your neighbors instead of you, no?
    Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving week.

[Update: Or not.]

MMMM # 175 -- Choice of Words

     Newspaper reporters used to keep an eye on the clock, watching as the time of their daily story deadline approached.
     Now those same reporters are on deadline every minute. They're told to Tweet, and post to Facebook and other social media sites frequently as the story developes, and the editors don't mean twice a day.
    
     With the increased speed of getting a story out comes new pressure regarding word selection.
   

     Tha's one of the factors that resulted in The Los Angeles Times Assistant Managing Editor to question their reporter's description of what allegedly happened in the shower between the Penn State coach and the ten year old boy. Why did their reporters not call it rape?
     I recall a co-worker back in radio-days questioning my use of "miracle" in a story describing the Birmingham area coroner who had survived been hit by lightening. "All the miracles have already happened" he informed me. While he worked in radio, his full time job was preaching.
     Ironically, a similar story just occurred last week. The Dothan Eagle reports the Henry County Coroner survived a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a car...a car that then even backed over him! And it happened on Church Street, no less.
     Just don't call it a miracle.

 (Photo Credit: Jim Reed Books, Birmingham)  

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this site.]

Outside Agitators

     "Outside agitators"
     I've have not yet heard anyone use that phrase to describe the Immigration Law protesters who've traveled here to Alabama, though surely some folks have thought it.
     Just like the outsiders who came here to sir up trouble back you-know-when.
    Thirteen of the new troublemakers were arrested for a sit-in at the Statehouse, and on the street outside. They were all released late on Thursday.
    More outsiders will be here next week, including a New York Congresswoman who writes to explain the reasons for her visit in The Huffington Post.
     Of course she's not some intruder from another place. She's a fellow American protesting what she sees as injustice, as were those who came before her.
     Montgomery Public Safety Director Chris Murphy told me his officers will treat those who come with respect, but make arrests if laws are broken. A far cry from The Edmund Pettus Bridge.

  
     The street of Montgomery were bloodied by earlier protests. This is a state about which some people know only one thing. And that is protest. From Selma to Birmingham to Anniston and beyond. We are protest.     
     I say welcome to Alabama, Madam Congresswoman Clarke.

[UPDATE: A Mercedes Benz executive is arrested in Alabama for not having his ID with him. Great headlines in Europe, fellas.] 

Bloomburg: Bankruptcy & Bentley

In an online story, Bloomberg's Business Week places the blame for Jefferson County's bankruptcy squarely at the feet of Governor Robert Bentley, who is described as not being prepared to be governor. "The Accidental Dr. Governor", is a phrase they use.

Room With a SPECTACULAR View!

Time lapse video shot from the ISS. Don't ya wonder how they get anything done up there, with views like this?

Only in America....

...can a candidate for office be criticised because she has earned a degree and is a college professor.

Why do we fear and hate education?

MMMM # 174 -- Where are the PR People?

     Public Relations people are sometimes--OK, often--the opponents of journalists.
     They seek to polish the images of the people and institutions they represent, while journalists seek the truth, unflattering or not.
     Nonetheless, PR folks can be of great help to people and institutions that are crashing and about to hit earth in spectacular form.
     A few recent examples where that did not happen:

• Did the big banks really think they would get away with imposing the debit card fees in the middle of the Great Recession? Where were their social-media savvy PR people?
• When he was confronted with multiple allegations of sexual harassment, who told GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain to pronounce himself not only innocent, but someone who "has never acted inappropriately"? Does his staff not include a single PR person?
• Penn State. Enough said.
• Netflix, which went from being a company who's customers were missionary-like in their zeal to praise it, to being a pariah that hundreds of thousand of customers abandoned.
• During Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's very first speaking engagement, literally minutes after he was sworn in, he defined his constituency as only his christian brothers and sisters. During those months leading up to the inauguration, no PR training at all?
• And there's the more recent "let them eat dirt" proposal from the same administration: that the hundreds of thousands of unemployed people should go work in the fields to replace the largely Hispanic farm-hands who've fled the state because of that other PR disaster, the Immigration Law. Isn't that like suggesting we feed the homeless to the hungry and solve two problems?  PR staff? Hello?
• Which Financial Institution thought it was a good idea for employees to swill champagne on their exclusive balconies high above the Occupy Wall Street rabble far below? I know times are tough, but did not a single PR person see what was coming?
• And let's not forget the Australian clothing store chain's recent dismissive emails to a customer who complained. The seasons are reversed Down Under. Is the customer always wrong there too?

     What all of those disaster have in common is the lack of good advice from a seasoned PR person. Someone who can look more than one step into the future, see the brick wall his or her client is about to hit, and suggest a change of course.
     I wonder if the Great Recession isn't to blame. One of the first places some companies cut when economic problems arrive is media and advertising (arguably the last place they should be cutting, but that's for another MMMM).
     Just as social media is taking an increasingly critical role in how firms and people are viewed, they fire the very people who can help them not crash and burn. Brilliant.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this site.]

Alabama's Dirty Jobs

     A story in Business Week explores why Americans...(the story starts in Uniontown, a Black Belt town west of Selma)...why Americans won't do dirty jobs for minimum wage...the jobs vacated by the illegal immigrants exiled by the state's Immigration Law.
     I guess the real story here is why they even had to ask the question.
     How long would the reporters and editors who wrote the piece have to be unemployed before they would go to the catfish processing plant in Uniontown and start working long shifts for little compensation. How about their of-age children?  Want a Summer job kids?

Alabama's Low Tax, Low Services Existance

     Birmingham News reporter Dave White has an exhaustive article about Alabama collecting the fewer tax dollars than any other state, and lots of reaction to that report.
     One of them: either we are more efficient than the rest of the country, or we're providing the lowest services to residents.
     Whatever complaints people have, Alabama's taxes shouldn't be one of them. Oh, that's right, it's the Feds they hate.

     OK, try reading this article from Rolling Stone. It reminded me of the book What's The Matter With Kansas. Why do people work so hard against their own best interests?

Ten, nine, eight, seven.....

     The ten day countdown is on to the deadline imposed on the congressional "super-committee" tasked with massive federal  budget cuts.
     Read this morning's L.A. Times story about the prospects for success, and you may throw your hands up in the air in despair.
     It is beginning to look like even the bullet-proof design of the committee can and will fail...such is the division of these Un-United States.

Time Change (NOT)

     It has been a week since the clocks changed, and at one point I was wondering who changes some of the big public clocks in Montgomery, like the one on the Capitol Building, and the old jewelers clock reinstalled recently at the foot of Dexter Avenue,

    

     I'm still not sure who changes the Capitol clock, but the other one: apparently nobody, at least not when it is supposed to be changed. As of Friday night at 6:28 it was still reading the hour-later time, as I found during the art-exhibit trip that night.

Art Denied

     I been a touch cynical about a group of  young people who've said they have been trying to breathe life into Downtown Montgomery.
     We did an interview on CBS 8 with Hellicity founder Johnny Veres a year or so ago. 
     I kept looking for the profit connection. Were they being funded by some Utility Company or other big business entity that would suddenly announce their funding? If I promoted this Helicity Montgomery effort, was I being duped into helping someone or something I did not really support? 
     I give up. If there's anything other than good will and the future of mankind downtown involved, I can't find it.
     Helicity and a second group called Denied and UnderExposed Art Initiative held an exhibition last night in the old Kress Store on Dexter Avenue. The owners of the old empty store are converting it into a combination loft/business development. But last night the main floor was filled with art, mostly paintings and prints, and a nice crowd was there too. Anyone who can get a crowd on Dexter at 6:00 on a Friday night is OK by me.
     The only negative? The groups plastered Thomas Edison logo promotional signs up on places across town that seem in conflict with their art mission.

 

Obit: Former longtime Montgomery Mayor Elmory Folmar

      Emory Folmar died on Friday, He was Mayor of Montgomery for 22 years, a tenth of Montgomery's entire history, starting in 1977. He was a Republican back in the days when that was a rarity in Montgomery and in Alabama, and he was proud of it.
      He's survived by his wife Anita, their children and grandchildren. 

M(S)MMM #173 -- Fabricated Good News

     So the mayor of Utah's second largest city was writing "good news" stories about his own city, using a fake name, and getting them onto KSL- TV's website and in a local newspaper, including the paper that broke the story.
     So what can KSL-TV say about letting this anonymous freelancer write material for its website? How about nothing.
    They report the story without mentioning their own involvement at all, saying it raises ethical questions for the newspaper!

     Then in L.A., The Times uncovered another fake "journalist" writing wonderfully positive stories about a Water Board. Great work on the part of the Times for exposing this sham.
     Say what you will about mainstream media, at least there are editors at work to make sure PR hacks aren't using them as outlets for their cheery output. The Great Recession has diminished the media, but at least some are keeping their eyes out for frauds.
     Next week: How the Great Recession has contributed to some public epic fails.
[The Monday (and sometimes Saturday) Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this site.]

Veterans Day

     It is not Veteran's Day, by the way, and it is not a day to honor those who died in service (That would be Memorial Day), or for those who are currently serving in the military services. They become Veterans when they leave service.
     Even Google seems to have gotten it not quite right in their always interesting logo for the day:

    Isn't the yellow ribbon a symbol for someone missing in action or serving overseas, and i.e., not a Veteran?

   But thanks for the thought anyway.

   Oh, and Veterans Day isn't really "celebrated". While not as downbeat at Memorial Day, it's a sober recognition of those who served The U.S. in whatever capacity.

   And we thank you for your service.

He earns an asterisk.

                                               *In 2011, Paterno.........

[UPDATE: The Penn State students riot over the firing of Paterno, and the graduate assistant who reported the Sandusky-in-the-shower incidnent---he's now an assistant coach---will NOT be at the weekend's Penn State game because...he's receiving multiple threats! What's next? Protests at the jail to "Free Sandusky?" At least the students, or the University, have cancelled their pep rally tonight and will hold a candlelight vigil for the victims instead.]

NASA to The Rescue (NOT)

     You may have read about the problem with a Russian Mars Probe. It launched just fine from Earth, but failed to fire its rockets to head to the Red Planet. Instead, it's orbiting...Earth!
     I couldn't help but think that IF we still were a space going country and had, say , a shuttle around, we could go save The Russians mission (for a hefty fee).
     Instead, we not only have no shuttles to fly, but we're dependant on...The Russian space program to get stuff into space. Brilliant!!!

Liberal Democrats Murder Christmas!

     Obama is Killing Christmas!!!!....
     That's what the headlines look like.
The reality is the Agriculture Department has gone along with the Christmas Tree Growers Association and allowed members to collect a fifteen-cent per-tree fee to provide money for a campaign promoting live trees over fake ones.
     Christmas Tree Tax!
     Obama Strike Out at Christmas!
     Liberals Gone Mad!
     A lot of the agricultural world does the same...imposes fees on their members to promote their products. Oranges, apples, tulips.
     Get a grip.

     Yes, it is likely the fifteen cents will be paid by consumers because the growers will pass it on. And those consumers have every right to rebel and go buy a fake, plastic, metallic Christmas tree in protest if they want.
     And Merry Christmas to you too.
     Can we have the election tomorrow and get it over with please?

Tonight: Earth's Close encounter

Ready for its closeup!

What Does The CSS Alabama have in common with NASA?

     An online article about preserving the NASA materials left behind on the Moon by the Apollo missions cites the Confederate Ship's wreckage as evidence that the U.S. retains ownership of the lunar left-behinds:

 The wreck of the Alabama was deemed U.S. property because the United States succeeded to all Confederate property after the Civil War ended and the United States had not expressly abandoned the wreck.

    Read the entire article in The Space Review here.
    Also, we haven't updated the CSS Alabama website in a long time, but for those of you interested in that aspect of the story, you can visit it here. Bob Corley and I started the site in 2008 when we were trying to produce a documentary about the ship.

Oh those kids!

     A Wisconsin State Senator is besides himself over some 4th grade kids on a field trip who took part in a protest against the Governor in the statehouse.
     The teacher has been reprimanded.
     According to a report by the local FOX TV Station:

Republican state Rep. Steve Nass told FOX6 the incident was "despicable."

"School children should not be a part of any political protest," fellow GOP Rep. Robin Vos said.

Er, Senator, been to any Tea Party protests lately?

MMMM # 172 -- Why We Still Need Newspapers.

     Exhibit #1: Read Dan Beyerle's story about a Friday Alabama Supreme Court Ruling, in the New York Times Regional Newspapers, including the Tuscaloosa News and The Gadsden Times.

     It's a story with such complexity only a newspaper story's length can tackle it...and Dana does a fine job explaining the decision and it's impact on the state.

     Exhibit #2: Read this docket document about sexual abuse of boys charges against the Gerald Sandusky, an assistant football coach at Penn State, and a would-be successor to Penn State's Joe Paterno...courtesy The Philadelphia Enquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News newspapers.

                                                            Broadcast News has its strengths, and will remain the primary source of news for the public for a long time. But telling the full story about complex issuses is best left to the papers. 

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature here.]

The Beatles

     The current edition of Prime Montgomery magazine includes an article about the concerts the Brennan Brothers used to put on in Birmingham and Montgomery.
     And it includes the fact that the Beatles would have performed in Montgomery or Birmingham if...if only those cities didn't have segregated audiences. It was in their contract.

     Perhaps that puts an entirely different slant on D.J. Tommy Charles burning the Beatles Records in 1966?